I was going to make my 50th about Ciao, however, i got a little carried away and have ended up going over so now here it is! My review about my ciao.co.uk experience.

Background

I joined Ciao! as i was always reading reviews on the website about various products and decided I could write some reviews myself. I didn't join because I thought it would be a money earner but I must admit that the bit of money I do get from spending some time reviewing products is very rewarding!

When I first joined I found it a bit confusing. I couldn't understand, and to be honest I still don't, the payment system. I found it difficult to work my way through some categories of items, I found it hard to know which category certain items would fall under and I also found writing reviews more challenging than I thought.

The aim of Ciao

The main purpose of Ciao is to have a website where reviews are written on all different items on the market (and also general advice such as recipes and parenting tips) which are of a high quality so as to advise potential buyers. The reviews written are then rated by other members as to how well written they are which then helps the writers to see how well they are writing and how they can improve. The money side of things is a small incentive which helps to encourage you to keep writing reviews. As well as awarding money for writing there is also the points that are achieved by your ciao activity. These points help you to gain a certain 'respect'. They show how active you have been and provide you with different coloured circles next to your name so people can see immediately how much experience you have had on the site.

Reviews

Writing reviews has now become a big part of my life. Every time I buy a product or I use something which either impresses me or irritates me I feel the needto write a Ciao review about it. I have improved on my writing since my first days of joining due to useful comments from other Ciao members and also my own experience of seeing the high standard of other reviews. I try to write reviews which are informative but also interesting too and well laidout. If you read a long review which is very mundane it can be difficult to enjoy reading it or even read it all so I try my best to make mine as interesting to read as possible.

The majority of reviews that I write about are the baby products which I use daily and also of places I have been as these are what I know best and it's always better to write about what you know!

Rating

I always like to see who has rated my reviews. It's interesting to see that a lot of the same people tend to rate and I wonder if it's because they see my name and chose to read it or if it's just because they like to rate reviews frequently. I like to recieve comments on my reviews as well as just ratings. It's always interesting to get feedback from what I have written and see if other people have had the same experiences or not.

After every review I write I try to rate at least 10 other reviews afterall, if I expect people to rate mine then it's only fair that I rate theirs too!

Ciao extras

Every week Ciao offers a chance for you to compete with others for the 'product of the week' where 3 members will win a small amount of cash for their review of the product. I enjoy taking part in this as it seems like some fun I don't enter it every week as it's just for fun and I like to give others a chance, not saying I'd always win or anything but it's nice to havea variety on the list instead of the same people all the time. Ciao also does a short and good award which is monthly. I have never won anything with this but I would quite like to obviously! I am always interested to see who has won and enjoy reading their reviews to see how they have earned it. I like the fact that these little competitions and rewards make Ciao diferent to other sites, it's just enough of an incentive to make you want to keep coming back and exploring how you can improve and stand more chance on these competitions.

Negatives

What I think Ciao lacks is the personal side of things. I think some form of a forum would go down well so you can exchange questions and comments more openly to a group of people instead of having to just message people directly. If you had a query about something or just wanted to make conversation a forum would come in very useful. I think that this would make ciao have more of a personal touch to it. Every day I see the same names writing reviews and I feel like i know them to some extent as I know what items they usually review and their sense of humour etc from how they write and it would be nice to get to know more about them by having a forum or chat room type place.

I also think ciao can be frustrating in that they don't always add a new item which you request. I have provided detailed information including links before and had the item I've reported not be listed as per email 'we could not recognise the item you reported'. Which is always frustrating! If I ever try to contact ciao the reply back is either non-existant or seems quite automated.

Something I find very irritating is when I read a review which is only short and contains little information, I'm about to click 'somewhat helpful' when I see that someone else has rated it 'exceptional'! I think there should be some ability to report another member or something so that this obvious rigged rating doesn't occur.

Positives

wow what a large paragraph on negatives! Honestly I'm actually a ciao fan despite all that!

I like the fact that ciao is reliable. I know now when I'm looking at a new item I want to buy that I can just log onto ciao and read some reviews and know that they are of a good standard.

I like the fact that when you earn money on ciao it isn't fussy to get it transferred into your account. You don't have to mess around with filling in complicated emails you just simply enter your account details and wait a few weeks and then it's in! With other sites you have to wait for cheques to come so you worry about postal strikes and what not or you don't get cash you get vouchers so this makes ciao! really useful.

I think the layout of ciao is really good compared to other sites. I have tried several other review sites but they are more confusing or they are all very samey, at least with ciao you get a good variety with them having competitions going on too so that it makes you check back frequently and encourages you to write.

The premium fund is shared out monthly and ths again spurs me on to write. I like that it doesn't matter how much you've written it's how much activity you've had in the last month which earns you a share of the premium fund. This again is a great initiative.

conclusion

Ciao! Isn't going to make you rich but that's not the reason to join! It's good to have some of my internet time be used to do something useful and intellectual instead of just playing games or getting addicted to facebook!

I recommend this site to you if you enjoy writing and getting your view heard.